Covid-19 made us flip our business plan

A week before lockdown started on March 23 we met in London to discuss a marketing strategy for our book Is that clear? Effective communication in a multilingual world. We met a colleague who had been a trainer in our field all his life. He was as passionate as us about fair communication and the need for native English speakers to adapt their language in international settings. As we left the meeting, we felt a mix of feelings. We were excited about recent bookings for our international communication skills workshops, yet all around us London was beginning to close down.

Within weeks we were both working remotely with workshops postponed (but thankfully not cancelled). It was time to flip our business plan. We had an idea for a second book but had planned to start it after the summer. With plans in disarray, we suddenly decided it was time to write. Then Kathryn got Covid, then Zanne’s son and we were both in isolation…but we used the time to plan and then write the next book.

Prior to lockdown, at one of our workshops somebody had suggested that our communication tips would help anybody living or working with autistic people. It wasn’t the first time we had heard this.

So, with time on our hands we contacted an educational specialist in Autism, Joe Butler. She read our first book and saw the parallels of communication between native/non-native speakers and allistic (non-autistic)/autistic people.

We decided we could work with our original material but adapt it. The three of us spent hours in lockdown, online, sharing ideas and adapting the original text. We then invited a range of autistic readers to add their thoughts and incorporated their useful and insightful comments.

And that’s how our second book came about. Thanks to lockdown, Acrobat-Global has just published Is that clear? – Effective communication in a neurodiverse world. It’s full of tips on how non-autistic people can adapt their language when communicating with autistic people. Each chapter has been reviewed by a panel of autistic readers.

Buy your copy now on Amazon http://www.bit.ly/isthatclear